News - Soap Buzz

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September 27th, 2010
CBS’s Barbara Bloom on new era of daytime programming for network

Photo Credit: JPI Studios

In an article out today from AD Age, the head of CBS Daytime Programming, Barbara Bloom, spoke on the ever-evolving and changing landscape of the CBS daytime programming block which has seen, As the World Turns and Guiding Light as its first major casualties replaced by the game show, Let’s Make a Deal, and the new “Mommy” gabfest, The Talk, which premieres on October 8th.

Bloom stated in regards to the recent soap opera bloodbath: ”It is a time of great change and great opportunity and more viewing choices. Staying at the forefront of making sure you’re the choice that is taken is always a battle. I’ve always thought the mandate is to make this the most competitive and engaging daypart as possible, and for a long time, we worked very closely with Procter & Gamble to try to keep the shows able to fulfill that mandate, and then it became clear that wasn’t happening.”

In regards to her new strategy for the daypart, Bloom said she always tries to keep her audience in my mind, and then works to hire people who the audience is attracted to: ”I always try to be really clear about what the universe is that I’m operating in. Am I empowering the people who are working on those shows? That’s the way I work. We really are trying to do the best by both our audience and the company.”

CBS Daytime made the choice to cancel As the World Turns and Guiding Light. I have made my choice to turn off CBS during the daytime hours and watch Days of our Lives and Swift Justice. Both are seen on my NBC affiliate. Dr Phil and Oprah are on my ABC station. In fact I think the only CBS show I will watch is Blue Bloods on Friday night, and that will be from my DVR. I may not be speaking for all people, but you have lost my family.

what a bunch of nonsense. She took something unique and replaced it with something ordinary. the affiliate in my city doesn’t even bother airing GL replacement at 3pm they pushed it off to a less desirable slot, something they never did with GL. She has ruined CBS daytiime and doesn;t care one bit for the viewers who have been loyal to cbs daytime for years

It’s a shame that all we’re getting are reality shows and more game and talk shows.ATWT had such a core of decency, even with all the sleazey characters that wandered through.I really feel sick about it and what does it say about our society as a whole with the garbage that people are watching.If this is the way of the world I think we all are in big trouble.

Nothing is replacing ATWT on my DVR. I’m moving to watching episodic nighttime TV series DVDs instead. The traditional networks (CBS, NBC, ABC) still don’t get how most people watch “live” TV today – they record it. It doesn’t mean people are not watching; they are simply time-shifting their viewing to a time when it’s convenient for them. There were probably millions of ATWT viewers that were simply not counted. I get it’s all about the ad dollars for the networks (obviously, they have to make money somehow), but if you still want eyes on your commercials in this new world, try shortening the commercials to 10 or 15 seconds so it’s inconvenient to fast forward and work on product placement like in film. I’m not interested in watching a mind-numbing game show or another gabfest. CBS has lost this daytime viewer.

I think it was a mistake to cancel ATWT and to me Barbara Bloom is a Blooming idiot. I’d say it is easier to have a certain number of loyal viewers that are actually buying what is advertised as opposed to having new game shows and talk shows that will be hard to find and keep.. This was it for me i’ve moved on from CBS to find my entertainment.

How can she say that she is keeping her audience in mind. By cancelling ATWT you are most certainly not thinking about your audience. My daughter was the 4th generation in my family to watch ATWT. Have you thought about people like my grandmother and mother who have worked all of their life and since retiring has been enjoying this show. Even when they couldn’t watch it during the day, once vcr’s came along they started recording the show and so did I. You have no idea what you have done. In my line of work in medical office administration, I have seen people waiting for Drs. appts. watching ATWT on the flat screens in the waiting rooms as well as people in assisted living centers and nursing homes. You have no idea of who the audience is. This show had a vast audience from all walks of life. Theire are also more men watching soaps now than ever before. You might not think that you’ve made a mistake but you will find out in the long run. The dumbest thing about all of this is that you and P&G are both playing the blame game when it’s us the fans that are being hurt in this whole fiasco. This was the only soap that I watched.

It amazes me how people like Barbara Bloom land executive/director of programming positions of anything! The truth is this woman is a complete failure! She sucked at ABC and she’s sucking up the place at CBS!

Since Barbara Bloom held former CBS head of daytime programming Lucy Johnson’s position, she’s managed to lose two iconic soap operas with Guiding Life and As the World Turns; enable poor writing staffs and production teams and is pretty much responsible for CBS Daytime’s tanking ratings.

When Lucy Johnson held the position, the daytime line up was primarily locked around CBS Daytime’s strengths The Price is Right and Young and the Restless. I recall As the World Turns and Guiding Light pulled in decent ratings by holding on to their core audience.

Sadly, under Barbara Bloom’s leadership, everything went to hell in a hand basket. It’s quite obvious her superficial concerns lies with what’s pretty. She’s a dim bulb that never looks beneath the surface!

Like Chris Goutman, Jean Passanante, Barbara Bloom’s arrogance and disdain for soap opera fans is quite evident with every interview they give. They have no idea who their viewing audience are. They, like so many idiots in control of the daytime industry have bought into this so called LARGE teenage soap viewing myth. If they took time out to read the fan mail, they would know that the vast majority of people who watch soaps are astute working professionals over 25 years of age who enjoy GOOD acting, storytelling and character driven writing.

Well, thanks to Ms. Bloom, she has successfully ruined CBS Daytime for me — a working professional. My CBS Daytime viewing has been suspended indefinitely.

cbs has gone to the dog. cutting the people from cbs morning news to as the world turn and guiding light. some time changes are not good. how many talk show can you have. i am really enjoying abc. they are keeping it real.

That’s for sure.As a long time viewer I still miss it and i know i always will.i stopped working a year and a half ago and i was so happy to have
‘time’ to really sit down and watch it with no interruptions….it was the one constant in my life.Even on bad days it was so much better than what’s on TV now.And the acting was so good most of the time.54 years on the air and the show and the viewers were not treated with respect at all.I have so many channels on my TV and i’m hard pressed to find anything decent to watch.

CBS is a mess! Not only did they cancel ATWT, but the got rid of their whole early show news team. I used to be a big fan of CBS, but they seem to think nothing of their fans or the people who work for them. I perfer to watch ABC or NBC now!!

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